The basketball Lady Archers look to challenge higher competition
By: Spencer Gleason
-Sports Editor-
As the 2012-2013 Lady Archers season passes the quarter-season mark, the Lady Archers sit with a 5-2 record. Although they have maintained a 14-game winning streak on their home court, which stretches back to last season, the Lady Archers have gone 1-2 in road games.
“The wins were good. The losses were bad,” Lady Archer head coach Shelly Ethridge said after their fifth win. “We’ve played kind of a tough schedule this year. We’re playing 13 Division I schools and 12 Division II schools. We knew the schedule was going to be challenging for us, but our two losses were pretty big defeats. We lost one in double overtime on the road and we lost one by 20 points on the road.”
As a Division II team, Ethridge hopes the competition against the Division I schools heightens their play on the court for the rest of the season.
“Hopefully, we can get a lot of learning experience from those two losses,” Ethridge said. “I’m happy with the five wins, but I think our better ball is ahead of us.”
As the season has progressed, so has the play of sophomore center, Paige Laird, according to Ethridge. Laird, who averaged 2.7 points per game last season, averages 8.6 points per game thus far, this season.
“There is nobody that works harder than Paige every single day,” Ethridge said. “With Paige’s work ethic, it’s transpired right in front of us. She’s really developed.”
Laird gives Lady Archers assistant coach Melanie Marcy credit for her change in play between the two seasons.
“She has helped me so much. She knows what to say. She never discourages us,” Laird said. “She tells us, ‘You can do it.’ She shows us the right way and works everything through, step-by-step. She’s just amazing. She’s always encouraging us.”
The coaching duo of Ethridge and Marcy led the Lady Archers to the National Junior College Athletic Association Tournament last season, as well as the now defunct Meramec Magic during the 2010-2011 season. According to Laird, work still needs to be done to get to the national tournament again, but they are well on their way.
“I feel like we are not completely there yet, but we’re going to get there,” Laird said. “It’s exciting. I think we can do it if we want.
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